There have been rumors of the usual big name coaches that the Knicks might pursue to fill the head coaching vacancy... aside from Zeke, the names of George Karl, Phil Jackson, and Larry Brown are being floated out there. I still think that Isiah will end up being the next coach, but whoever it is the biggest problem that New York is going to have to deal with is getting out of cap hell. They're not bad enough to get a lottery pick and get some top young talent, but they're not good enough to make any significant noise in the playoffs. They're mired in mediocrity, although they still can win the Atlantic division.

According to a team source, Thomas wanted to keep Wilkens at least until the end of an upcoming West Coast trip. Not only did Thomas feel that a coach of Wilkens' stature deserved the benefit of the doubt, but Thomas felt it would be unfair to bring in a new coach at a time when the Knicks are facing a brutal stretch in their schedule.

Those are hardly circumstances to initiate a firing, especially of a Hall of Fame coach who had never been fired during the season in any of his previous 31 years in the business. However, after an irate Dolan, the Garden chairman, met with Garden president Steve Mills, the organization's two highest-ranking officials insisted that Thomas make the move immediately.

Once Thomas decided to replace Wilkens, his only concern was to avoid publicly humiliating him, especially after the way Thomas and the Knicks handled the Don Chaney firing 13 months earlier. That is why the Knicks went to such great lengths to make it look as if Wilkens resigned and was not fired.

Dolan and Mills have become more and more involved in the day-to-day operations of the Knicks since Dave Checketts was fired May of 2001.

I don't know if you listened to Mike and Dog today (wfan.com), but they GRILLED Zeke around five-ish. They had him on, sans 20/20s, for at least a half hour. I caught most of it, and he and Mad Dog were pretty well at each others throats. Thomas might have set an all time record for most uses of the word "Goddamn" on the radio...